Academy of Natural Sciences Ichthyology Collection

Established in 1812, The Academy of Natural Sciences hosts one of the most important collections of preserved fishes in the world with an estimated 1.6 million specimens in 155,000 lots representing more than 15,000 species. The collection is particularly rich in catfishes (Order Siluriformes), minnows (Cypriniformes) and eels (Anguilliformes). Geographically, its strengths include freshwater species of North and South America and marine species of the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans. ANSP also has one of the world’s largest collections of fish types with 2,797 primary and 17,881 secondary type specimens representing 1,857 and 2,048 species/subspecies, respectively. In total, ANSP types represent ~3,086 species/subspecies and ~8.4% of all fish species ever named as such (as of Jan 2024). Specimens aside, staff have assembled and curate ~18,000 frozen tissue samples of thousands of fish species primarily from the U.S. and South America.